BBS: Returning Home
by Chlstarr
Summary: King Mickey returns home sooner than expected for once, just missing the Dream Festival by hours. Queen Minnie updates him on all that's happened at the festival this year, including Pete's banishment and this year's Million Dreams Award winners, who all happen to be familiar names to the King's ears. Does he tell her what's happened to them in turn? Read to find out.


**AN** : Welcome to my 23rd story ever. And YO! KH3 and KH2.8 hype! What better occasion than this to give you all a Mick and Min fluff angst fic that nobody wanted? I do mention it in this story so just read and enjoy.

Oh, and I did my extensive research, Mickey never really met Terra, true story.

For those who are looking at this out of curiosity because you're following me for Hearts and Souls Are the Same Thing Down Here story...the update is coming, I promise, but it's gonna be a bit.

Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix, and Disney characters belong to Disney.

* * *

He cringed as he thought of what his wife would say upon his return home. He missed the Dream Festival, for the first time ever, all because some strange monsters were popping up in the town's underground system, certain parts of the town itself, and potentially other worlds as well, or at least that last part was the gut feeling he got.

Minnie being upset with him was a given. He could only hope that she was merely worried about him in regards to where he ran off to. However, that was wishful thinking. She could be furious with him, but then again he couldn't be sure. She might actually hide her true feelings with somewhat faux understanding, since he was a Keyblade wielder he had other duties to attend to for the benefit of their world and all the others, and in the long run whatever he was doing out there was always in effort to keep their world safe. Though in her heart of hearts he shouldn't be even messing around in other worlds and should mind his own world's business.

Minnie could be a bit unpredictable like that. She was raised in royalty and knew how to hold a good poker face, while he was married into royalty, and could be read as easily as a book no matter how hard he tried to hide his emotions.

Meanwhile, he was already getting an earful from Donald and Goofy as he drove the Gummi Ship home, he ignored them for the most part, but nodded when it was appropriate to make it seem like he was listening. Throughout most of their complaining for the sake of his safety, they also complained about having to miss the Dream Festival as well. At this Mickey finally drooped his ears.

"Aw, gosh fellas. I'm sorry ya had ta miss the festival 'cause of me. I regret having ta miss it too. But things were getting hairy and I did what I felt was right."

"Well you should be, my nephews got an ice cream machine from my Uncle Scrooge, and I wanted to try some of that ice cream!" Donald spat.

"Aw, c'mon Donald, that ain't helping. Besides, Ventus an' then Aqua helped 'im when we couldn't so we should just be grateful that thuh King's alright." Goofy countered, defending the King in complete understanding…yet not really because the King never said what he was trying to do in the first place, but that was his business not theirs.

In any case they finally made it home, and after getting out of the Gummi ship and the ship's hangar, the trio wandered the halls and came upon a small welcoming committee…that surprisingly enough, wasn't for them. Evidently, Scrooge McDuck got there mere minutes before they did, as the triplets welcomed him home and thanked him for the ice cream machine, proudly adding that they got a lot of business. Though admittedly they needed help figuring out how to work the darn thing even with the instructions, but they got help from a boy named Ventus. Of course King Mickey's ears perked right up at the name, amazed that his now sleeping friend had paid a visit to his home world.

Daisy, Queen Minnie's long time best friend and hand maiden, and Donald's girlfriend, finally noticed Donald over Scrooge's shoulder and ran over to greet him with a hug, throwing decorum out the window for the time being. The Queen was nowhere in sight, and everyone knew the King was more lenient, easygoing, and half the time could care less about decorum and formalities. So Daisy took full advantage of that fact when she could, despite being the Queen's best friend and tended to throw decorum out the window when in private with her anyway.

While Daisy squeezed the dickens out of Donald, the King couldn't help but ask off handedly at the corner of his mouth, "She's not mad at me, is she?"

"Mad at you? Nah, but you know how hard she is to read sometimes. If I had to put a word to whatever it looked like she was feeling, I'd say it'd be _disappointment_." Daisy told him. Mickey visibly cringed at the word, so Daisy added something to ease his worries a little. "It's not too bad though. You have your Keyblade wielder job outside our world and she understands that."

Mickey nodded in agreement and his own understanding, and noticed the slight confirmation of his earlier thoughts, but still…other than figuring out where the creatures were coming from, he didn't have much justification for leaving.

"Where can I find her?" He asked curiously.

"If she's not in the library, then she probably retired for a nap. We had quite the interesting day today at the festival, but it's probably better that you hear it from her than from me." Daisy replied nonchalantly.

Mickey thanked her and headed on his way, as it was all the direction he needed. Luckily the library was on the way to their bedroom, with a cut through the gardens of course.

As he passed by and around the duck family, he couldn't help overhearing one of the boys tell their Uncles that when they weren't giving away ice cream, they were at the races, and though they all lost to a boy named Terra, at least they all beat Pete who was posing himself as Captain Dark just for the races instead of his other Captain Justice persona. King Mickey would've stopped dead in his tracks upon hearing another familiar name, but of the three human Keyblade wielders, he knew Terra the least. Never even got to say a proper hello and how do ya do to him either. Mickey also heard a brief mention of Queen Minnie being at the races, so he figured that she was making her rounds around the Festival activities, so he'd ask about Terra later when he saw her.

Her Majesty wasn't in the library when he poked his head in, so off to their bed chambers it was. Poking his head in through their bedroom door, he found that she wasn't napping and the bathroom door was wide open, but he saw a flash of red and pink through the balcony windows. Mickey smirked mischievously as he knew exactly how to make his presence known.

He opened the balcony doors as silently as possible. Minnie must've been deeply in thought about something, as her ears didn't twitch at even the slightest noise made from the balcony doors opening. They both had pretty good hearing, and since Mickey was trying to be sneaky, the smallest of noises sounded extremely loud to him. Even Mickey's tiptoeing footsteps were just barely audible and her ears didn't twitch into his direction. Well, at least his little plan was going to work, so he really wasn't complaining that her head was completely in the clouds. It almost wouldn't've worked because Pluto was nestled at her feet, but Pluto was a good dog and all Mickey had to do was put a finger to his pursed lips, and the dog understood to keep quiet and not get too excited that his Master had returned.

Mickey however, did have the decency to let Minnie finish her thoughts, unless she gave a visual sign that she'd rather be distracted from them. So, he leaned against the balcony railing at about two feet from her so she wouldn't see him at the corner of her eye, and he waited. It didn't take long, as not even two minutes later she finally sighed and laid her head in her arms on the balcony railing. That was Mickey's cue.

"One Munny fer yer thoughts, toots?"

It was a wonder Minnie didn't sprain her neck from quickly turning to face him at the sound of his voice.

"Mickey!" She cried in surprise and happiness. She then swiftly went over to him, not quite able to get her arms around him fast enough.

"Hiya Min, miss me much?" Mickey asked teasingly as he returned her embrace.

"Oh hush, you know I always miss you when you're gone." She retorted gently, pecking his lips briefly and then nestling her head into the crook of his neck. Then she noticed something and pulled away again. "But I'm pretty sure this is the fastest you've ever come home after setting off for one of your adventures out there. You just missed the Dream Festival by a few hours."

"Sorry I missed it, I-!"

"It doesn't matter." She interrupted him sternly before he could even give one of his usual explanations. "You did what you had to and that's what's important." She kept a straight face as she said it, and gave him a small peck on the cheek for good measure.

King Mickey gave a short chuckled huff through his nose, of course she wouldn't hear it. She did understand, she just preferred to keep her selfishness regarding him to herself, and simply, happily indulged in spending time with him otherwise.

"So, what did I miss out on this year?" He finally asked curiously.

"Oh goodness, where to even start? Well, this year we had three winners, Ventus, Aqua, and Terra."

"No kidding?" Mickey piped up sounding quite happily surprised. Minnie picked up on it immediately and couldn't help but question it.

"Yes, why? Do you know them?"

"Yup, I sure do. Well, I know two of them personally, and I haven't really met the third one respectively." He told her, and couldn't help but ask. "Uh, what was Terra like?"

Minnie had already figured that he heard from someone that she made her rounds around the festival, so she didn't question that. She couldn't help but let out a small bemused giggle upon recalling her encounter with Terra. "Well, he nearly got run over by Pete at the race track, but he had his reasons for being out there as he was only trying to go after the scary looking karts that simply didn't belong. I think he called them Unversed. Still, he tried to justify that rules don't apply when trying to go after such creatures, but Chip and Dale gave him a reasonable lecture in my stead about that. He learned his lesson, and respectfully entered the races to get rid of the creatures in a fair manner. He even managed to beat Pete fair and square."

"Ha-huh! I'm sure Pete wasn't too happy about that." Mickey chuckled already imagining it.

"He certainly wasn't. At the time he was disguised as Captain Dark in an effort to get his name voted on the ballot. And when that didn't work he posed as Captain Justice trying to solve problems here and there, but he wasn't ever able to do it right. He tried so hard, Mickey, it was such a shame I had to banish him." She explained further, and said the last bit so casually Mickey actually had to do a double take at her and pulled away a bit.

"Wait, ya what? Ya _banished_ 'im? What am I missing here that he managed to incur yer wrath, Minnie?"

"He didn't like that he didn't win the Million Dreams Award as well, and though I told him he did get a few votes for those that did believe in him when he was trying to do the right thing, even if it was for the wrong reasons, he disregarded them and still tried to take the prize, so I got the guards to take him somewhere to cool off. Some place that he couldn't have escaped on his own, but somehow he did, and since I have no idea where he could be, he can consider himself banished." Minnie admitted with hints of sadness and frustration.

"Well then…"He clicked his tongue, letting the information sink in. "…. _Good riddance_ , we never liked him anyway." He added giddily, fully knowing he'd be reprimanded for such a statement.

" _Mickey Mouse_!" She scolded with a sharp whack to his right arm. "What did I _**just**_ say?"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry it came out like that, Min, but really…. Name one person in town who actually liked him, and I mean _really_ liked him for who he was. Go on, I dare ya." He backed away from her and shielded himself from the barrage of one-notch-harder-than-playful punches to the arm that she was currently throwing at him.

She paused in her assault as she went over the list of everyone they knew in her head, only to realize he was right. No one _really_ liked him, he caused enough trouble as it is on a daily basis, let alone the yearly Dream Festival. Truly it was a wonder he didn't act up like this sooner and get the boot just as soon. Still, it was all so sad to her because it really seemed like Pete was trying his best to be an exemplary citizen. She couldn't help it as tears welled up in her eyes, instantly sending Mickey into panic mode.

"Aw, Minnie don't cry! I know ya wanted ta believe in him when the others wouldn't, but you an' I both know he always _**wastes**_ his second chances. An' knowing him, he probably would've been petty enough ta not even like the prize either!" He comforted her as best as he could, wrapping his arms around her again and petting the back of her head. "What were the prizes this year, since ya had three winners?" He asked to add on to his changed subject, anything to get her to smile again. He hated it when she cried, her sobs were the most heartbreaking sounds in all of the worlds.

Minnie choked on a sob because she couldn't help but chuckle at how right he was again. "Heh, you're right, Pete probably wouldn't like the prize even if he did win. This year, the winners received their own specially made flavor of ice cream. Terra got Rockin' Crunch, Ventus got Double Crunch, and Aqua got Royalberry. If Pete _had_ won…I'd probably give him licorice flavored ice cream…for obvious reasons."

" _ **Yick**_ , licorice. Geez Min, ya sure can throw yer salt when ya wanna." He gagged at the flavor choice and couldn't stop grinning even if he wanted to, knowing that it was a subtle hint of spite regardless of everything she said about believing in Pete. "But the other flavors sure sound yummy! I wish I could've seen it."

"I wish you could've seen it too, dear." She cooed sympathetically. Then she relayed all that happened with the other two winners, explaining how they earned their votes. Mickey had already heard the story with Ventus helping out the triplets but didn't say anything and humored her, but her version included that the triplets wanted her to have the first taste of their special recipe ice cream, but of course they couldn't figure out how to work the machine even with the directions. As for Aqua, she helped clear out the Unversed in a fair game of Fruitball. And though she doubted herself about protecting the kingdom by herself, Minnie was reassured by Horace that the people wouldn't even have thought of holding the festival if they knew for certain that anything could go wrong. Though there were things here and there that were the Unversed and Pete's doing, the festival turned out all right in the end, even if it could've gone better. "But at least there's always next year." She finished with hope in her tone. "And who knows, maybe those three will visit again next year."

Mickey sighed tiredly through his nose, and then tilted his head forward to rest his forehead on her shoulder. "There won't be a next year for either of them." He quipped sadly. It was a string of words he didn't entirely want to leave his mouth, but there was no hope hiding it. If he bottled it up it would become obvious he was sad about something and she'd question him about it eventually anyways. Might as well get over it now while the memories were still fresh.

"Pardon?" Minnie asked him cautiously. His sudden sadness caught her off guard, and surely he couldn't mean what she thought he meant.

"Something… _ **terrible**_ happened ta all three of them toward the end of this adventure of mine. And maybe it's partly my fault fer not reaching them sooner, and I never got ta meet Terra face ta face, so I wonder if meeting him and talkin' my own sense into him would've helped any." He told her, though it was obvious even to her he was mostly directing this all to himself. He easily put blame on himself when certain situations happen that he had no way of controlling the outcome, which she knew all too well. "Ventus sort of lost his heart, Master Yen Sid says it went somewhere, and now his body is asleep fer who knows how long. Terra's probably gone fer good, even Master Yen Sid isn't sure exactly what happened to 'im, just that the darkness won over him in the end. An' Aqua, she went ta go find Terra, an' now she's missing too. I shoulda gone with her, but I didn't know Terra all that well so I stayed out of it, but now it's my fault she's-!"

"Mickey it's not your fault." Minnie cut him off sternly. "Even I can tell there was nothing you could've done to prevent any of it. You weren't meant to either. Sometimes…things just happen for a reason, a reason that no one can really explain. It's all planned out by fate and destiny and _**nothing**_ can stop it, no matter how hard you try. I met all three of them personally, and I _know_ they're all good people." She assured him. "Terra may have needed an extra nudge in the right direction, but deep down he wasn't that bad either, though he did say something quite worrying about the darkness before he left, but to me it sounded like it was his own personal lesson learned." This she said off-handedly before getting back to her point. "Now, I may not entirely understand what has happened to them, but I have a feeling everything will right itself eventually. It will just take an awfully long time is all. Just remember to keep them in mind every now and then, there may even come a day when that's all they need from you. We'll see them again someday, I'm sure of it." She finished confidently. She had felt him tilt his head a little to look at her at the corner of his eye while she spoke, and of course she noticed that glimmer in his eye that indicated that her words got through to him.

"How is it that ya always know what to say ta make me feel better, Min?" He asked finally, slowly lifting his head from her shoulder to look at her at eye level, gently cupping her cheek.

"It probably comes with knowing you so well after how many years that we've known each other?" She told him, trailing off at her hypothetical question that she knew he'd try his darndest to answer anyway. She raised a hand of her own to keep his hand at her cheek while she nuzzled into it.

"Too many ta count." He replied simply with a small chuckle.

"Exactly." She giggled back, removing her hand and moving it to loop her arm with his. "Now, how about we go have some ice cream? I saved some of the special recipe ice cream the boys made for me, just for you, Mickey."

"Really? Aww, ya shouldn't have, Minnie! But I'm glad ya did anyway. Remind me ta get the boys something extra special fer Christmas this year, they deserve it fer wantin' ta dote on ya first an' foremost with that ice cream machine." He replied cheerfully, wiggling his free hand's fingers to signal to Pluto that he was ready to properly greet him with a good ear scratchin'.

As Yen Sid predicted, and Queen Minnie cemented with thoughts of her own, it took a very long time, a little over a decade in fact, before something could be done about the lost three Keyblade wielders. Mickey is unfortunately a rather forgetful person in the long run, ten years is an awful long time to attempt his little promise at being a second light for Ventus to follow to get home. Out of sight, out of mind so to speak.

Mickey did encounter Aqua in the Realm of Darkness, but aside from him finding the Kingdom Key D in order close the Door to Darkness with Sora, he was unable to leave with Master Aqua as she had fallen into an intricate form of Darkness. In any case, both she and Terra are the trickier ones to save out of the three, Terra especially since he's got the whole Xemnas and Heartless Ansem and Terrahnort business going on there. But how will this all resolve in the end?

 _ **Only time will tell.**_


End file.
